12/26 Top 100 ~Showdown~ VGC 2016 Teams

Happy holidays everyone! Considering the timing of how this is going to be this blog's last post of 2015, I figured it would be appropriate to have a commemorative edition of the week's "best" teams. As you could have guessed from the title, the article this week is going to be showcasing the top 100 teams from the VGC 2016 ladder as of December 26th. The order the Pokemon appear in goes Weather Trio ➡ "Uber"/Formerly Banned Legendaries ➡  Mega ➡ Other Legendaries ➡ Non-Mega/Non-Legendaries.  I also included the names of every Pokemon to make it easier to find all of the teams with a specific Pokemon on them. Because the number of teams is doubled this time around, I have not had the chance to add in the usage stats at the bottom but I'll get around to it later today or tomorrow. If you want to know when the list is updated you can follow me on Twitter @BerserkVGC, as I'll usually post about it sometime during each weekend. You can also find Zach's list here. Until next time, stay safe everyone and I'll see you next year!

1. snow-pokepoke: Kyogre/Rayquaza/Gengar/Zapdos/Crobat/Aegislash

   

            

12/20 Top 50 ~Showdown~ VGC 2016 Teams

Hey guys, its that time of the week again! If anyone is wondering, this list was taken from an elo range on showdown of 1547 to 1699. Just as last week the order the Pokemon appear in goes Mega ➡ Weather Trio ➡ "Uber"/Formerly Banned Legendaries ➡ Other Legendaries ➡ Non-Mega/Non-Legendaries.  I included the names of every Pokemon to make it easier to find all of the teams with a specific Pokemon on them and also added the usage stats for said teams underneath. If you want to know when the list is updated you can follow me on Twitter @BerserkVGC, as I'll usually post about it sometime during each weekend. If you find yourself checking lists like these frequently, Zach is going to be posting the top teams as well but on different days so that at least one will have more current data (you can find that here).

***Disclaimer: This list is never going to be "current" just because of how often showdown rankings update, but it should provide a good baseline for what is popular in the meta at the moment


1. isaby: Kangaskhan/Groudon/Xerneas/Talonflame/Ditto/Smeargle

        

12/14 Top 50 ~Showdown~ VGC 2016 Teams

Hey guys, Nick "Berserk" Walterhouse here—wait, what? Not my line to say? Well then.... This post is more for myself than anything but I figured that if I was going to compile this information that I might as well share it with the community, even though the data that goes into it is pretty volatile. I am probably going to end up updating this list weekly as long as I have enough time but if anyone is interested, the order of Pokemon in this list goes Mega ➡ Weather Trio ➡ "Uber"/Formerly Banned Legendaries ➡ Other Legendaries ➡ Non-mega/Legendaries. I included the names of every Pokemon to make it easier to find all of the teams with a specific Pokemon on them. I will also add in usage stats and thoughts on the format sometime tomorrow.
***Disclaimer: This list is never going to be "current" just because of how often showdown rankings update, but it should provide a good baseline for what is popular in the meta at the moment 

   1. GS God: Kangaskhan/Groudon/Xerneas/Cresselia/Crobat/Togekiss

       

Lexiround08 - a multiple PC top-finishing team created by Alex Underhill

TerraKing: A Georgia Regionals 22nd Place Team Report

Yo, what's up guys. This is Jacobo Salazar, also known as jacsaz or "digimon shirt guy" online. This will be a simple team overview for the team I used to place 22nd at the Athens regional championship, as well as going undefeated in 3 PCs. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Now on to the team:

 

 

Nidoking @ Choice Scarf

Timid

52HP/252SpA/204Spe (0 attack IV)

-Ice Beam

-Earth Power

-Sludge Bomb

-Beat Up

This thing is a monster, and probably one of my favorite Pokemon used this season. The spread was relatively simple: enough speed to creep max speed Lando, max special attack to get all the OHKOs I can, and the rest dumped into HP to add some bulk. Ice Beam will OHKO pretty much every kind of Landorus and Salemence in the format. Earth Power OHKOs metagross, Terrakion, and Mawile. Sludge Bomb 2HKOs pretty much every fairy type Pokemon, while Nido can't be KO'd back with a fairy attack. Beat Up as my last move was not something everyone agreed with, but it came in handy several times. If the situation was presented, I could catch my opponent by surprise and get a +4 attack Terrakion, which is terrifying.

Terrakion @ Lum Berry

Jolly

20HP/236Att/252Spe

-Protect

-Rock Slide

-Close Combat

-Substitute 

A bit different from a normal Terrakion, but not by much. Instead of using a common filler move like double kick, quick guard, or even quick attack, I opted for substitute. If I could get a situation where I was able to beat up and get the sub up right away, then it was pretty much game over. Also, sometimes people will go for the status on Terra turn one, which I would just heal with Lum and proceed to sub up in order to prevent future statuses. 

Breloom @ Focus Sash

Adamant

252Att/252Spe/4HP

-Protect

-Bullet Seed

-Mach Punch

-Spore

Asides from adamant, it's a pretty standard breloom. I chose adamant over jolly because I didn't think I was really outspending anything important with a positive speed nature, and using adamant means you can KO some things with only 2 hits from bullet seed, which minimizes dice rolls.

 

Suicune @ Sitrus Berry

Modest

236HP/44Def/108SpA/100SpD/20Spe

-scald

-ice beam

-tailwind

-mirror coat

HP maximized my sitrus recovery. Decided not to put as much defense as other people were putting on it, as I'm pretty much already living any physical attacks. I also decided that since I was running mirror coat, I wanted to be able to live those attacks I was sending back, so the investment gave me better chances of surviving thunderbolt from zapdos, thundurus, and rotom. 108 Special Attack gives me pretty good chances of KOing 4HP MegaMence, and 20 Speed makes it outspeed Scarf Lando under tailwind.

Charizard @ Charizardite Y

Modest

196HP/172Def/132SpA

-Protect 

-Heat Wave

-HP Ground

-Solar Beam

Yes, I ran 0 speed EVs on my Charizard. I'm either an idiot or a genius, I can't tell yet. The bulk allows me to survive Jolly Kangaskhan's DE 100% of the time. I also have an 82% chance of living a max attack Lando's Rock Slide, and since at the time most people were giving up attack for bulk, I pretty much always lived Rock Slides. HP Ground is something I decided to put on the night before the tournament, and I regret it deeply. Looking back at it, my team already has enough checks for Heatran. Overheat or Flamethrower would've been much better calls, and I believe I could've done better with either of those moves over HP.

Hydreigon @ Life Orb

Modest

252SpA/252Spe/4HP

-Draco Meteor

-Dark Pulse

-Earth Power

-Protect

No fancy spread here. I wanted a maximum damage output, and the speed gave me a better match up against Hydreigon mirror matches. However, Hydreigon was my worst Pokemon at the tournament, as I only brought it to 1/8 games I played, and I lost that game. Fairies were way too common, and I wasn't comfortable bringing Hydreigon at all. I believe Aegislash would have been a much better call, as it hits like a truck with LO and it would have given me a much needed Wide Guard. 

2015 Athens Regional Road Trip

Hey guys, Team Scrublab took a road trip to Georgia in May for the 2015 Athens Regional. Jacobo Salazar (jacsaz) was inspired by the hype over Wolfey's VGC documentary and recorded various moments of our exciting adventure. You can check out the video right here!

 

Bricks Get the Chicks: A Florida States Premier Challenge 1st Place Report

Hey guys!  For those of you who don’t know me (which would probably be most of you), my name is Jacob Legler, or just “Legler” for those that know me personally. I have been involved with VGC since spring regionals at Florida last year, where I did horribly, but managed to fall in love with the game.  Over the course of the last year or so that I have been playing, I have top cut several Premier Challenges, placing top 4 at three, and with this weekends win, won two.  While I performed poorly at my only two regional competitions, Florida of this year and last year, I feel that my performances at Premier Challenges justify my skill for someone who has only played for a little over a year.  Though, that's enough about me, let's get on to the good stuff.

The Idea:

Inspired by both Aaron Zheng and Wolfe Glicke, I knew immediately based on their performances that I wanted to try out Mega Venusaur, and I absolutely loved it in testing.  I have always felt like relying heavily on speed control (tailwind, trick room, etc.) wasn't really my thing, and I knew the bulk of Venusaur could do with little-to-no speed control when given proper support.  This inspired the first half of my team, which was originally Venusaur, Thundurus-I (for thunder wave and taunt), and Heatran.  I also found focus sash tailwind Latios to be very interesting, especially with the rising popularity of Venusaur (which it beats), so the second half of my team was built around Latios, originally being Latios, Bisharp, and Terrakion.

The Team (Original): Venusaur, Heatran, Thundurus-I, Latios, Bisharp, Terrakion

Flaws to The Original team:

In testing, I loved Venusaur, but some of the team members just didn't seem to fit in, such as Thundurus and Terrakion. Their lack of bulk made it harder to perform the switches the team played so well with.  I figured Rotom-W would be a good call over Thundurus, as it completes the Fire-Water-Grass core, and while it sacrifices speed-control and taunt, will-o-wisp and the added bulk fit perfectly on the team. Rotom ended up being my MVP at the Premier Challenge.  As for Terrakion, I loved that it beat Kang and Charizard, two of Venusaur's biggest threats, but its lack of bulk and poor switch potential really steered me away.  Landorus-T was the perfect replacement. Access to superpower and rock slide still beat Kang and Charizard, and intimidate was amazing on this team.

The Team (Revised):  Venusaur-Mega, Heatran, Rotom-W, Latios, Bisharp, Landorus

Venusaur @ Venusaurite

Ability: Overgrow (I was too lazy to find a chlorophyll one)

EVs: 252 HP/124 Def/76 SpAtk/52 SpDef/4 Spe

Nature: Bold

-Protect

-Leech Seed

-Sludge Bomb

-Giga Drain

Bread and butter Venusaur from Aaron Zheng.  The EVs allow it to survive pretty much anything that's not choice band brave bird or Mega Salamence return/double edge.  I could have looked for a chlorophyll one, but I honestly don’t think it’s too important and I’ve never seen the one turn speed boost mattering.  I absolutely loved using this Venusaur, and my strategy would normally be to cripple my opponent’s offenses and take out any threats until I could just close out the game with Venusaur.

Heatran @ Leftovers

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Spe

Nature: Modest

-Protect

-Substitute

-Heat Wave

-Earth Power

Not too much to say here, as this is pretty much as basic as it gets.  Heatran was simply the best available fire-type, and I have always felt that sub-leftovers Heatran was the way to go.  Flash Fire was great for absorbing will-o-wisps and opposing heat waves, and the natural bulk and offense that Heatran provides has quickly made it one of my personal favorite Pokemon in the format.

Rotom-W @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP/44 Def/52 SpAtk/156 SpDef/4 Spe

Nature: Calm

-Protect

-Will-o-wisp

-Thunderbolt

-Hydro Pump

The same Rotom-W I have been using since last year; the EVs allow it to survive Mega Mawile play rough as well as choice specs Hydreigon draco meteor 100% of the time.  This little guy was easily my MVP this weekend, hitting every will-o-wisp, and only missing one out of five hydro pumps throughout all of Swiss.  On several occasions, just landing a WoW on Kang meant GG for my opponent, as Venusaur would be virtually impossible to kill with the rest of their teams.  Not to mention the thunderbolt paralysis and double full-para on Berserk’s Mega Salamence in game 3 of the finals… this Rotom will be here to stay.

Latios @ Focus Sash

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Spe

Nature: Timid

-Protect

-Tailwind

-Psychic

-Draco Meteor

Latios, more than anyone else on this team, started off as an experiment.  I saw potential because with sash it will always survive Bisharp's sucker punch at full HP, and it can survive a -1 Kangaskhan sucker punch while Landorus can earthquake next to it.  It quickly became my go-to lead Pokemon, and I ended up bringing it to every game in the tournament.  Leading with Latios was so good because of the offensive pressure that draco meteor and psychic provided along with its speed. Its ability to get an almost guaranteed fast tailwind off was great to have as well.  I would say that, overall, I think Latios is one of the most, if not the most, underrated Pokemon in the format right now (it can outspeed and OHKO Terrakion, Kangaskhan fans), and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying it.

Bisharp @ Life Orb

Ability: Defiant

EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe

Nature: Adamant

-Protect

-Sucker Punch

-Iron Head

-Knock Off

Is there really anything I have to say?  Ever since the rise in popularity of life orb Bisharp I have come to appreciate its pure strength.  Doing over 50% to Kang with sucker punch? This thing is a monster.  It’s offensive presence was amazing, and while I did not end up bringing it too often at the Premier Challenge, I still loved to use it.  Defiant was great to have, as it could scare away Lando leads while I lead with my own Landorus to gain an advantage on intimidate, and it also took care of Aegislash, which is a very scary Pokemon to go up against.

Landorus-T @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 76 HP/252 Atk/52 Def/128 Spe

Nature: Adamant

-Earthquake

-Rock Slide

-Superpower

-Stone Edge

I was so close… so very close to giving my Landorus 144 EVs in speed just to outspeed max speed modest Heatran even without a choice scarf.  But then I thought “When is this going to matter, really”, and it ended up mattering... in game 3 of the finals against Berserk, where my -1 Speed Landorus was staring down a max speed modest Heatran that was about to take out my already crippled Lando with a helping hand boosted heat wave, which potentially could have cost me the game… until my Landorus skillfully avoided the heatwave and KOed back with earthquake. Needless to say RNG was on my side this weekend, and I cannot apologize enough to Nick for that game 3.  Anyway, Lando was my last addition to the team, as a replacement to terrakion.  Intimidate was great for my team, which relied so heavily on defense, and losing the fighting-type weakness Terrakion gave me and gaining a resistance was great for the team.  It was easily the most significant improvement from my original team to my revised team.

VenuButter and Jelli - A 3rd Place Premier Challenge Report

     Hey guys, my name is Kolby Golliher, but you might recognize me more by my Nugget Bridge and Twitter handle Lovetrain. I first started playing Pokemon competitively in 2011 when I attended the Georgia regional and lost in Top 8 to KiwiDawg (Seniors). I bring this up because at that regional I used a really solid core of Jellicent/Ferrothorn/Hydreigon. I am still super upset that Ferrothorn does not resist Dark-type attacks anymore because I really hate Bisharp. Anyway, I think it is pretty ironic that I unknowingly used the exact same core four years later with Mega Venusaur in Ferrothorn's place.

     At the Maitland, FL premiere challenge on 3/3/15, this team was first seed going into Top Cut and led me to a 3rd place finish overall. The only games I dropped were against Nick and his stupid Minimizing Clefable, but it is okay because I love him anyway. <3

     I really regret not using this team at the Florida regional two days prior because I imagine I would have played a lot better there if I had. This is one of my favorite teams that I have ever built and I had an absolute blast using it so I hope you do too if you decide to try it out yourself!

jellyfish (Jellicent) @ Leftovers

Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Protect

     First and foremost: jelli is love, jelli is life. Jellicent and Venusaur were probably my most common leads throughout the whole tournament. I know this sounds a little crazy because neither of them pose much of an offensive presence, but many of the teams I faced did not have an answer to the immediate defensive pressure the duo created with Will-O-Wisp and Leech Seed and so I capitalized on this. 252/100+ allows Jellicent to survive a Dark Pulse from Modest 252 Choice Specs Hydreigon and also a Thunderbolt from Modest 252 Life Orb Zapdos. Neither of these are super popular at this point in the metagame, so in retrospect I think it would have been more efficient to invest just enough EVs to survive Life Orb Hydreigon instead of Choice Specs and move the rest to defense. In 2011 I used Water Absorb, but I switched to Cursed Body after watching Zach on stream in St. Louis and have not looked back since.

USF SUCKS (Terrakion) @ Lum Berry

Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Protect

     For the most part, Terrakion was standard and did Terrakion stuff. I chose to use Stone Edge over other filler moves like Double Kick, Quick Guard, Swords Dance, or even Roar (thx ashton) because Thundurus really threatened my team if it spread enough paralysis around and I was not about to have any of that. Rock Slide is a 2HKO on most bulky Thundurus and sometimes even a 3HKO after factoring in Sitrus Berry; with Stone Edge, Terrakion is able to take out most bulky Thundurus before they cause too many problems. I think I only used it once during the tournament, but it was absolutely beautiful to watch a Thundurus faint on the very first turn without doing anything. Stone Edge was also a nice option to have against CharY teams with Wide Guard or Intimidate. Stone Edge is the best filler move on Terrakion 80% of the time and the worst filler move 20% of the time.

AT-AT walker (Heatran) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Protect

    This is a pretty standard Heatran and it has really great defensive synergy with Jellicent and Mega Venusaur forming a bulky Grass/Fire/Water core. I think Chople Berry is the best item on Heatran because it allows it to survive attacks like a Close Combat from Terrakion and then OHKO back with Flash Cannon (or Earth Power after the special defense drop). A couple of other times that Chople Berry frequently comes in handy is against Mega Kangaskhan's Low Kick and any Conkeldurr set. I like Flash Cannon over Substitute but I think that might just be because I do not have any other Steel-type moves and I like to switch a lot.

flower (Venusaur) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 76 SpA / 44 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Leech Seed
- Protect

     This is Aaron Zheng's Venusaur spread except with 8 EVs moved from special defense to speed so I could speed creep all of the other Mega Venusaur that were also copying Aaron's spread. It did not end up mattering at all during the PC, but I am glad I opted to do this anyway.

bird (Talonflame) @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Brave Bird
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

     Huge shout-out to my good friend blutrane who gave me this infamous Dive Ball Talonflame that I have used on nearly all of my teams since last year, only changing the third move to fit the rest of my team. On my SmeargToise team I used Tailwind, on my regionals team I used Taunt, and this time I tried out Will-O-Wisp. I did not think my team benefited much from Tailwind and I was not afraid of my Trick Room match-up either so I chose Will-O-Wisp because a fast burn-spreader helped Venusaur close out games when I was not in the right situation to "just press brave bird". Talonflame gets a lot of hate for not being bulky but it does its job better than anything else and continues to be a wonderful choice in my opinion.

sock puppets (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]

     I am not really sure how I feel about Hydreigon in general. It has good defensive synergy with the rest of my team but I did not use it very often because I faced a lot of Trick Room teams. Scarf Hidden Power Ice is an idea I stole from 000aj that out-speeds and OHKOs non-bulky Scarf Landorus 100% of the time. The one time I used it in Swiss against Priciliano Garcia (Pirate Lion Inferno), his Landorus survived with a sliver of HP left, but Talonflame was able to pick it off later so it was not a huge issue in the end anyway. Before the tournament I wanted to change Hydreigon to something else that resists Dark-type attacks (Bisharp Knock Off in particular) and has a good match-up against Landorus. Will suggested I try Blaziken, but I kept Hydreigon because Talonflame was already holding Life Orb and I would not be able to switch Blaziken in on an Earthquake like I would with Hydreigon.